Hydrophobic–oleophobic antireflective film with excellent optical property prepared by a imple sol–gel route

A single layer SiO2 hydrophobic–oleophobic antireflective (AR) film with excellent optical property was prepared by simply mixing the base-catalyzed tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) sol with acid-catalyzed methyltriethoxysilane (MTES) sol. When the weight ratio of acid-catalyzed MTES sol to total hybrid sol reaches to 70%, a hydrophobic–oleophobic AR film with a high transmittance of 98.89% at 550nm can be obtained. The water contact angle and the oil contact angle of the film are 120.6° and 78.4°, respectively. No obvious reduction in the maximum transmittance of prepared single layer SiO2 hydrophobic–oleophobic antireflective film at about 550nm can be observed after abrasion or exposure to the outdoor condition for four months, demonstrating its great application potential in the outdoor devices.